Shouts Out

These are the people who got me started:

Ryan Clark, the Lucky of Lucky’s (now nonexistent) Visual Basic Game Programming, which has long since been replaced by the Game Programming Wiki. When I was a tender teen, it was Lucky’s site that got me really into game programming, but as I left for college I set coding aside for what would turn out to be thirteen years…

Robert Boyd, one of the creators of Zeboyd Games, who’s game Cthulhu Saves the World revealed to me that indie game programming was a thing, and that one could make a living at it. Looking at his miraculous development time of eight months for Cthulhu, I figured it would be easy for me to churn out a game in a month or two.

If you just snorted or heard someone snort, there is an actual Game Developer in the room.

James Silva, Head Dishwasher of Ska Studios, who made a game with zombies in it (or so I hear). He also wrote the book Building XNA 2.0 Games, and you can get a used copy off of Amazon for the price of shipping. It’s outdated, as XNA 4 has some serious changes, but it’s still worth the full list price for Silva’s advice on game development in general, and his sense of style.

Derek Yu, the game artist who turned to game making so he could put his art into games. Yu’s advice on making art and his advice on making games surpass my own in quality. My hope is to fill in the gaps he leaves with quantity.

And last but not least, Dean Dodrill, a fantastic artist-turned game developer who took Silva’s book and created one of my favorite games of all time: Dust: An Elysian Tail. Dodrill is my inspiration to keep going.